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Music pulls together for this Day

The Columbian
Published: April 1, 2011, 12:00am

When Kevin Skaff left the band Four Letter Lie a few years ago, he thought he was also leaving music altogether.

“I’d gone to a year of college,” Skaff said. “I was going to be a history teacher. I was actually going to head on back (to school) and finish that up and try to start teaching.”

Instead, Skaff is now getting schooled about what it means to be in one of the most popular bands on the metalcore scene, A Day to Remember.

• What: A Day to Remember, in concert.

• When: 7 p.m. April 1.

• Where: Roseland Theater, 8 N.W. Sixth Ave., Portland.

• Cost: $25 through 800-992-8499 or http://ticketswest.com.

• Information: http://roselandpdx.com.

Skaff actually was still in Four Letter Lie when he first came into the orbit of his new band. A friend had told him that A Day to Remember’s guitarist, Tom Denny, had injured his wrist and the band needed a fill-in guitarist for a tour of the United Kingdom. Skaff, who had met the band’s members, seized the opportunity.

&#8226; What: A Day to Remember, in concert.

&#8226; When: 7 p.m. April 1.

&#8226; Where: Roseland Theater, 8 N.W. Sixth Ave., Portland.

&#8226; Cost: $25 through 800-992-8499 or <a href="http://ticketswest.com">http://ticketswest.com</a>.

&#8226; Information: <a href="http://roselandpdx.com">http://roselandpdx.com</a>.

“I hit up (bassist) Josh (Woodard), and Josh told me, he asked me if I could learn 12 songs overnight,” Skaff said. “That’s exactly what I did.”

Skaff thought the fill-in tour would be the extent of his involvement with A Day to Remember. Not long after it, he decided to bow out of Four Letter Lie.

“It’s a pretty standard story about why anybody would leave a band,” he said. “We were touring and had been struggling for so long. It was just … there were a ton of things that came into play, and I just wasn’t feeling it anymore, so I just thought I’d get out before I made myself too unhappy or too run down.”

Less than two weeks later, Woodard called on Skaff again, this time ahead of an A Day to Remember U.S. tour.

“I had no idea I was actually going to go out on that tour,” Skaff said. “I was just sitting at home. I was looking into colleges and was going to go back to school, and then about 10 days later Josh called and told me that Tom’s wrist was still pretty messed up and that he needed a fill-in again. By the end of that tour, I learned that Tom wasn’t going to be in the band anymore, and they asked me to be in it.”

In stepping into Denny’s guitar slot, Skaff joined a group that has grown into a band to watch. Formed in Ocala, Fla., in 2003 by singer Jeremy McKinnon and Denny, the band (which also includes Woodard, guitarist Neil Westfall and drummer Alex Shellnutt) set out to create a sound that combined the heaviness of hardcore and metal with strong pop melodies.

It took A Day to Remember some time to develop its sound. Its first CD, 2005’s “And Their Name Was Treason,” and the 2007 follow-up, “For Those Who Have Heart,” were both works in progress. But on the band’s 2009 CD, “Homesick,” the band’s sound jelled.

The welcome that greeted “Homesick” reflected the progress A Day to Remember was making musically. Alternative Press magazine touted the album as one of 2009’s most-anticipated releases. When the CD came out, it debuted at No. 21 on Billboard’s album charts.

It was against this backdrop that the new A Day to Remember album, “What Separates Me From You,” arrived in stores in November.

Like “Homesick,” the new CD was produced by New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert.

Skaff said “What Separates Me From You” feels like a natural extension of “Homesick,” and it retains the musical trademarks of that 2009 CD.

“All we can really say about this record is we’re all super proud of all of the songs we came up with,” Skaff said. “I guess that’s all that really matters because we have to play the songs every night.”

That is happening now. A Day to Remember is in the middle of what figures to be roughly two years of touring behind “What Separates Me From You.” After a fall tour that played smaller markets and featured a stripped-down presentation, the band is bringing some visual bells and whistles out for its spring headlining tour.

“We have the confetti cannons and the pool toys and the big backdrop. We had those for a really long time,” Skaff said. “Then we really stepped it up. … Yeah, we have the LCD video screen backdrop and the ramps. We have a ton of stuff.”

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